Honey brown surfaces show lovely golden highlights and an impressive degree of luster for the assigned grade. The visual appeal and surface quality are both choice, and only a few inconsequential flaws are noted. A thin horizontal hairline is present in the center of the right obverse field, and some dull contact points blend in at the back of Libertys jaw. An infinitesimal planchet flaw is hard to see along the raised obverse rim near 4:00. Softness at the peripheries is related to the die state, somewhere between Manley 2.0 and 3.0, as the crack from the stem of the berry left of C in CENT is not yet visible. Raised vertical lines in the die, caused by spalling or the like, are visible in both obverse fields. The central strike is firm, though OF and the leaves near it are a bit soft.Rare as it is in high grade, Cohen-3 is the only 1808 variety that can be considered collectible in Mint State. This coin is tied as the finest 1808 half cent seen by PCGS with the Missouri Cabinet 1808/7 C-2, the only Mint State survivor from those dies. The finest known Cohen-1 is just EF. After the 2008 Half Cent Happening, Jeff Noonan reported, "Tetts wonderful MS coin stood out above the rest of the seventeen examples."
